You've seen the Jackets more than I have this year by a substantial margin...tactically, if you notice, is that what they normally look like? Their in-zone coverage is different than what I remember seeing earlier in the year. I might want to steal it and tinker with it...

mikey287 wrote:You've seen the Jackets more than I have this year by a substantial margin...tactically, if you notice, is that what they normally look like? Their in-zone coverage is different than what I remember seeing earlier in the year. I might want to steal it and tinker with it...

Probably gonna need to watch harder for that, but earlier in this game, they had 3 guys around their crease and one in the slot when the puck was below the dots. Jack Johnson ran into the ref and turned it over horribly, and they still got 3 guys down to break up the scoring chance.

Puck gets dumped in, they have 3 guys working to get it out, which typically is more than the offense has.

They take up a lot of space in the slot. At times, it looks like a box and 1, where they look like a PK with one guy pressuring the point. Other times, it looks like they're playing a compressed version of the 1-3-1, keeping guys to the outside.

Then, there's other times where you wonder what the hell they think they're doing. So far through this Vancouver game, though, they've been really strong and tight.

Of course, all of the above is based on the last 10 minutes or so when I was actually trying to pay attention to it, so I have no idea if they've been doing this or they're running it against the Canucks as a strategy.

And yeah, I noticed 3 men down below the circles and then 2 at the next level high...I haven't seen much of that on a consistent basis. It's interesting because it reminds me a bit of the left wing lock but in a super condensed area...allows for constant out-numbering down-low against a team that likes to cycle (namely, the Sedins). I'll go back and watch some Blue Jackets tape and check out if that's the norm.

Really, Johansen and Calvert... trying to be too fancy. Anisimov makes the same move every time (4 out of 6 on the year counting tonight).

Calvert looked like he was gonna do something cool and just kind of got away from him...he came in with the puck right on his heel the whole way, I was thinking, "boy, he's close to losing that thing..." and then he goofballed it right into Schneider's paraphernalia...

Still like Calvert, always have, going back to his days as a Wheatie...

This MTL-BOS game is pretty good. After MTL lost to the Pens 7-6, they came back the next night and beat Boston on the road and looks like they are bringing their "A" game again tonight in the same situation. Quite a rivalry.